Kenyan Techie Lures Youths with Innovation

Leading Kenyan firm Dingah Logistics Company Ltd intends to mentor and create young millionaires through the newly introduced franchise (agency) scheme.

The locally owned outfit intends to create a global village cutting down barriers to trade and encourage one to trade globally. The firm is therefore inviting trade partners to buy Franchisees and agencies to trade as Dingah anywhere within the globe.

In an interview, Dingah CEO Steven O. Omolo says franchisee is responsible for operations within his/her region and equally becomes a board member and participates in the key decision making of the company. Currently, the pilot system has been deployed in Kenya, with the whole country being divided into five parts in form of provinces to be managed by five Franchisees.

Mr Omolo says the five areas within Kenya are Nairobi region and environs, Central Kenya and Rift Valley region. Other regions are Coast region and lastly Nyanza covering the western side of Kenya and its environs.

He says a Franchisee owns sixty percent (60%) equity of the region. He is then responsible for selling up-to a maximum of two thousand (2,000) agency contracts at Kenya shillings ten thousand (ksh.10,000) each and two hundred (200) super agents at Kenya shillings one hundred thousand(ksh.100,000) each. This will guarantee any franchisee an annual return of Kenya shillings twenty four million (ksh.24, 000,000) every year as all licenses are valid for a year.

“The two hundred super agents per region can then be spread to the different towns to ensure customer service is facilitated as they offer all the services within Dingah platform, ” he says adding that super agents can go ahead and recruit more agents to make their work easier. Their equity share is twenty percent (20%) for all businesses under their agency and an additional ten percent (10%) from all the agents recruited by them.

All agents including Franchisees and super agents need to get a code which tracks all the transactions carried out by them. Application of the code is done through purchase of a platinum Vacation Card which is at Kenya shillings ten thousand (ksh.10,000) only which will automatically generate an agent code and if referred by another agent or super-agent then one has to input that code.

Mr Omolo says all agents who refer other agents get 3% of the other agents’ business transactions as a bonus. Dingah has introduced a new system referred to us Dingah points. Each Dingah point has a unit value equivalent to one (1) Kenya shilling. Any Dingah user can now transfer the Dingah points to any other user, use it for shopping and payment for all the services within the Dingah system.

“To convert the points to cash one must visit a Dingah agent to withdraw or deposit the points in exchange for cash. The transaction costs for both deposits and withdrawals stand at 10% of the value while the transfer costs when making purchases or transferring to another Dingah user stands at 1%. All agents make a commission of 5% of these values and will normally mop up the points from the shops and individuals through withdrawals.

The commission is instant unlike in other systems. The dingah points transfer system will see people using points to shop globally through a system which makes it convenient and easier to do business and providing an additional income stream to all the agents.

Late last year, the firm launched the first ever digital system in Kenya that has shaken the local taxi industry. The Dingah Lift system targets low-end market. Under the application, Airport transfer shuttles and anyone interested just needs to download and log into Dingah app available both on Playstore and Appstore and choose the lift option, then proceed to offer services.